It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas has come and gone and all I can say this year is WOW!!! We are truly blessed by the friends and family we have and were able to spend a wonderful holiday with. We started our celebration on Christmas Eve with a nice Turkey dinner, with dressing, green bean casserole, potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and apple pie. James, Tina, Trey, Caleb and I all ate dinner and afterward we opened gifts. We got a Wii as a family gift, and Tina got Guitar Hero World Tour, Trey got a Motorcycle Helmet, and Caleb got a jacket and a PSP that he bought for himself. Here are a few pictures, I also have a family picture from my grandparents but they are on my Grandma's camera.









Christmas Day we went out to my Grandparents for Lunch. We had Mexican Food, which was enchiladas, tamales, chips, salsa, beans and rice. It was all so good!!!! We had a really good time and visited with all of my family. My cousin Nicole surprised everyone and flew in from Pittsburgh, PA!! After we left my grandparents we went strait to James's parents house, where they were also having tamales, among other things. lol I didn't even try to eat again because I was so full from a late lunch. When we finally got home it was almost 8 p.m. What a wonderful Christmas!!! It was so amazing to spend with family. :)

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Last Wednesday the 10th something amazing happened here in little old Bryan, it snowed!! Yes, that's right, SNOWED. Not just little flakes that didnt stick to the anything but actual snow, that left a layer of white fluffy goodness on everything it touched. How amazing! Now for those of you that dont know, this is Texas, it really doesnt snow here. I think I remember it snowing and sticking once when I was about 4 or 5. The kids really enjoyed it and loved playing in it!! There are a ton of pictures to follow. I took over 100 pictures so I tried to pick a few but it was hard!!! Just in case you're wondering Mocha did not care for the snow at all!! He ran promptly back inside!!




When the snow first Started!



About 30 mins. Later.



Tina looking mad at me.



Caleb making a little snow person.



Tina starting to build a snowman!



How beautiful!!!



My car covered in snow!




Tina and the Beginning of her snowman.

Green with Envy!!!

Well we have been talking about painting our living room for a really long time. We even have not put up some new pictures and frames that we got because we were going to paint. Well since we are getting a new dining room table on Wednesday I decided to try to paint the living room and dining room before the table got here! So we worked hard on it for 2 full days and finally it is finished!!! I had a really hard time picking a color, but I knew that I wanted green so we finally decided on Pacific Pines as the color. It is beautiful. It feels so much more like home now and I can not wait to start on other rooms!!! James is such a great painter so it was nice that he was home it took him about 30 mins to roll the whole room and the rest was really just us doing the edges and moldings. The finished product is spectacular!!

Tina Painting!!!!


James Painting!!!!


Mocha Helping!!


The Finished Product!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, the most wonderful holiday of the year!! You get to spend time with your loved ones without the pressure of the gift giving. Every year we spend Thanksgiving with my Grandparents and extended family. This year being no different, we had a wonderful dinner at 5 p.m. at my Grandparents house. It was all very good and yummy and fattening I'm sure. I thought I would make a list of things I was thankful for. I am going to try to keep the list down to 25 things!! We'll see how it goes.

1. My Family
2. Our Friends
3. God's Love for Us All
4. Clean Water
5. Fresh Air
6. A Home
7. Food
8. Jobs
9. Children laughing
10. Sweet Pets
11. Freedom
12. Warm Showers
13. The Feel of the Sunshine on your Face
14. A Cool Breeze
15. The Words "I Love You"
16. Sweet Babies
17. Rain
18. Warm Showers
19. Washing Machine and Dryer
20. Good Health
21. Rainbows
22. Honesty
23. Starbucks
24. Books
25. Technology

Wow!! I did it. Just 25 things was hard to narrow down!! I am thankful for a lot of things this year. James because he listens to me and loves me unconditionally. Christina for her kind heart and generous spirit. Caleb for his understanding and loving soul. My grandparents for their unconditional love and support. Trey for his strong presence and great sense of humor. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Christina's "Suprise" Party

We had a surprise party for Tina on Saturday the 25th, she was somewhat surprised, but thanks to people who can't keep secrets, (ahem Carla and Colleen), she had already figured out most of it. It started out with 5 of her closest friends coming over to our house, from here we went to Double Daves and ate dinner. MMMM Pizza Rolls!!!! After that we headed over to Abigaile's Treehouse, the Bed & Breakfast that I booked for Tina's party and sleep over.



It is such an impressive and lovely place!! We booked the 3rd floor and it had a hot tub and loft and king bed. It is owned by Lindsey's mom, Lisa. I watch Lindsey's little ones during the day and they are like family to us!
We had wonderful Strawberry cake from Sweet Memories!! It was absolutely beautiful!

The kids enjoyed a lot of time in the hot tub and then running around outside! We all had an awesome time!!! The boys went home and then the girls giggled in the loft all night long, while James and I slept in the bed, which was so comfortable!!!

Thank you to Lisa and Lindsey for the wonderful location for our party!!! It was amazing!

Homecoming '08

Homecoming was this weekend and all the kids had a wonderful time!! I am just going to include some pictures of the night. I was so happy for them!!









So pretty!!!!

Quick Update

I have not updated in awhile, but things are going great with school for the kids. We have not really done anything exciting, because James has been gone with work a lot. Right now the kids are at Young Life, and I am just updating this. I will definatly have more to update as the month progresses. I am so excited for Tina's Birthday and for Halloween. I will post lots of pictures from both!!! I probably should also ad that Tina got her braces off in July and that we miss Jamaica terribly!!! Here's a new picture of me and Tina from my 10 year high school reunion!!!

Jamaica

Well we just got back from Jamaica a couple weeks ago but I have been so super busy I have not had the chance to post about it. We had so much fun. We left Monday morning on the July 7th, our flight left Houston at 9:05 a.m. The flight was great, no problems. We had yummy bananas and bran cereal for breakfast on the flight. We then go to the airport and had to wait to go through customs. It took us an hour and 1/2 to go through customs and both Tina and I got really sick and felt like we had to throw up when we got through customs finally. So we spent some time in a tiny yucky bathroom while James got our Luggage. Once we cleared customs with our luggage we found our FunJet coordinator and he pointed us to the bus that was to take us the hour and 1/2 to our hotel.

The bus ride was beautiful and educational. We stopped along the way to rest and eat a little. And took tons of pictures of the beautiful mountains and houses built into the hills.







We finally arrived at our destination, The Royal Decameron Club Caribbean. It was breathtaking and the people were so nice. We were upgraded to a beach front hut. When we got to our hut we were surprised that it had one bedroom, bathroom, living room and a loft with two beds for Tina. and about 30 feet out of our door was the ocean.



We had an incredible time eating the amazing food, drinking, playing pool games (with Chris, Frisky & Frost), watching the shows, watching the other guests, laying on the beach, swimming in the pool, swimming in the ocean, and just enjoying eachother and the crabs haha.









When we finally left on Friday. Chris from the pool games gave us a hug bye! We really didnt want to leave we loved it there so much. It felt like a little peice of home, and we had to leave it behind. We will definatly go back next summer.

Our Flight home left at 1:20p.m. and was very awesome. We had chicken sandwiches and m&ms. When we got to the airport it took a total of 30 mins to go through customs and get our luggage. We then took a shuttle to our car, and drove to the Woodlands where we had dinner at Landry's. Then home to Bryan. We loved Jamaica. Irie!!!!

Bar-b-Que

We had a Bar-b-que this weekend and invited some of our friends and family. James made brisket and sausage and I made beans and homemade mac and cheese. It was soo good. Miss Cindy brought sopapilla cheescake (delicious) and Lindsey brought a key lime pie (also delicious). Tina and James were asking for more of both last night. After we all ate the kids went swimming and we all just hung out and talked. It was so much fun and so relaxing. We never really get to do things like this because of James's work schedule. So it was a Saturday filled with good friends, good food and good times. I couldnt ask for anything more. Thanks so much to everyone who came and just completely made my day. It really helps take my mind off of my 2ww (two week wait) which goes by so slowly. So we spent all day sunday just hanging out and cleaning up. Tina keeps asking if we can do it again next week. lol

New Car ;)

So I have been much better. I got my stent out and have been pain free for about a week. Exciting. James finally came home after being gone for three weeks. This was his weekend off so we decided now would be a good time for him to get his car. He bought a '91 Ford Mustang, it is red. Beautiful and really nice. I will post a pic later. Caleb started his job on a farm and Tina has been hanging out with friends. We put up our pool today which is exciting because we can now start swimming a lot. James is in a golf tournament at Bryan Municipal Golf Course. So while he is doing that Tina and I are swimming and shopping for stuff to take to Jamaica. That's what we have been up to lately. I have to finish some landscaping outside but our grass looks amazing and so do my roses! Which is exciting in itself.

Days go by

I have been really sick passing a kidney stone. So nothing is really going on right now. I had surgery to break up the kidney stone and I am healing nicely. James is gone with work, and finals are coming up for the kids. So we are just hanging out at home. I will probably be having a garage sale sometime soon. We could never really get through it all without the great friends we have here and my family. Thank you guys for being here for us and helping us out. I really need to write a lot more but Tina is trying to make me watch a movie. So more later. love

My doctor put in a stent when I had my kidney stone surgery on Wednesday. The stent can be kind of painful, so I am still taking some pain medicene. James is gone with work and has been for awhile and wont be back until June. I miss him so so much, but we get to talk every day which I love. We have absolutely no groceries. So my grandma is coming over tomorrow to take Tina grocery shopping for us and we made a list. Yay! We'll have some food to eat. We have been relying on friends to bring us dinner for about 3 days and when that was all gone tonight we were like OMG we have no food. lol Luckily Trey came by (to pick up his laundry) and went and picked up some dinner for us to eat. I didnt go grocery shopping before my surgery because I thought I would be fine afterwards, but the pain meds and the stent make it where I can't drive anywhere, so I try to take it easy. There is an end in sight though, because I get the stent out on Thursday. Hopefully James will be home soon!!! When I am feeling better Tina and I are going to go to the Woodlands Mall, before I get my kiddos that I normally watch back. I miss them tonsss.

Slow Seasons

I have been sick, but I've been feeling better. i pulled a muscle in my back but it has finally started to stop hurting. Tina and I have made a pact to be more healthy and give up fast food. So far we've been doing pretty good. I'm proud of us. We've been walking every night or every other night at the park. Well I walk and Tina and Carla and Colleen Run/Jog. This was James's weekend off so we just stayed at home and layed around and I rested my back. That's about all that's been going on with us these past two weeks.

SummerTime!!!!

So the time is here for us to decide what to do with our summer vacation!! We have been planning on renting a condo in Port Aransas for the week and hanging out on the coast with friends and having a good time, but the $$$$ was completely outrageous. So I took the money we had planned to use there and tried to put it to better use. We got a great deal on a 5 day 4 night stay in Jamaica!!! Yay!!! So I guess it is Jamaica here were come. I'm really excited because I have been to Cozumel so many times but never to Jamaica. I think we will love it lots and lots!!!!

Teenagers...what are they really good for??

So I have been teaching Tina drivers ed consistantly for the past week. Let me tell you is it boring. Sorry State of Texas, but geez. She's almost ready to take the test for her permit. Yay!! for her I guess. Not for me. It's just something to make me even more worried about her. Not only is she God know where doing God knows what but she drove herself there!!!! lol I'm having a little trouble letting go. What happened to my sweet sweet baby girl?? They really do grow up so fast. She's learning really quickly which I knew she would. We have to get the transmission fixed on the silver car because that is the car she is going to learn to drive on. So once it's fixed, she's going to start paying us for it and then it's hers in November when she gets her license. So keep thinking of us.

2008 So Far

I haven’t been really good at keeping up with blogging lately. So I thought I would start 2008 off right!!
March has been pretty eventful for all of us so far. On March 1st James and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by going to 7f Lodge. It was so much fun and so so nice. We both loved it!! Our actual anniversary didn’t come until the 12th, but on the 10th James gave me a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings. He thought he wasnt going to be home for our anniversary but he was.
For spring break, the 2nd week in March, Christina went to Port Aransas with Carla & Colleen Roberts. They had a really great time and came back with lots of really great stories.
The weekend of March 16th James, Stevie, Trey, Caleb, Tina & Alecia all worked on building a sidewalk in front of the house. I added some pictures of it to my profile under Our House. It looks really nice!!! I spent that time at the hospital with my grandma, grandpa, mom & uncle Jim. My grandma had some complications from a medicene they gave her for her really bad allergies. She is all better now though and was released that Sunday.
March 18th, my uncle passed away. It was very hard on my Grandma, he was her brother. I have been trying to be there for her & help her. Yesterday we drove to Fort Worth for the funeral and spent time with our family. It was a nice visit and a beautiful service.
Hopefully next week I will be able to go over to my Grandma’s house and do some cleaning. She has a really bad cough from allergies. Which I am completely sure are bad for everyone this time of year. Tina started having a cough earlier today. I think she is getting bronchitis, because Connor has it. So we shall see. She’s running a little fever.
During all of this weekend excitement our Civic also broke down. It’s the transmission. Bleh. So when our income tax comes in that is what it will pay for. Right now James is borrowing his mom’s suburban, because I really am not getting up to take him to work at 4 am. Hopefully everything will settle down next month, or maybe not. I start teaching Tina drivers ed next week. :) Think of us!!! & as always we love you so much:)

Meet the Minors

This is my first official family blog. I have been blogging on here and on myspace for awhile. I thought this could be an introduction blog. :) Our family currently consists of James, Me (Courtney), Christina & Caleb. James and I have been together for five years this August, and we just celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary March 12. James and I met many years ago, when he was still in high school, and we talked for a really long time. I never really wanted to date him because he was 4 years younger than I was. We developed a good friendship that just became something more over time. I think that is the strongest foundation for a relationship.

We adopted our daughter Christina in October 2005 when she was about to turn 13. She had already lived with us since she was 11. Christina is my biological half sister. She's 15 now and a freshman in high school and I love her to death.

My brother Caleb came to live with us in August of 2007. He's 16 and a Junior in high school. So far the transition has been pretty hard. We are all adjusting. So far things have been hard, but then we knew they would be.

Through this all we have tried to make everything feel like family. We work really hard to always be there for our two kids and to help them feel like they have a home here with us. We also have more members of or family. My brother Trey who is 19 and works with James.

My cat Teddy who is 6 years old and like a child to me. I love her so so much.

Christina's cat Kitten. He's 4 and fat.

James's dog Mollie. She's a blue heeler and was born on our wedding day 3/12/2005.

Christina's dog Mocha. He's a Shih-poo and he is 1 year old.

James's cat Jean. He's a shelter kitty so I'm not sure how old he is but he is sweet.

This is our family:)